NIH Resubmission Policy Change

A change in the NIH resubmission policy (effective immediately) now allows for the submission of new applications following an unsuccessful resubmission (A1) application. This new application (A0) does not need to demonstrate substantial changes in scientific direction compared to previously reviewed submissions, and must not contain an introduction to respond to the critiques from the previous reviews.

Below is a link to an article from Sally Rockey at NIH which describes what led to this change and a link to the official NIH notice (NOT-OD-14-074).

It’s important to point out that per the notice the policy for not accepting overlapping applications still remains in effect, so NIH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time.

This means that the NIH will not accept:

a new (A0) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of an overlapping resubmission (A1) application.

a resubmission (A1) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of the previous new (A0) application.

an application that has substantial overlap with another application pending appeal of initial peer review (see NOT-OD-11-101).

The NIH will not accept a resubmission (A1) application that is submitted later than 37 months after submission of the new (A0) application that it follows.